Wallet Advice

Now that Christmas is over, it is time to start thinking about Valentine’s Day.

Maybe this year you should consider something besides a teddy bear and a handful of roses. Since it is Valentines day, something red would still be nice. But how about something she will actually use every day.

The Chloe brick red leather Paddington continental wallet would be a great gift for your loved one. First of all, it’s a Chloe wallet. She’ll be impressed that you even know about the brand. Second, it is a beautiful bright red wallet that will attract attention every time she uses it. People will ask her about the wallet and she’ll get to beam while telling about the great gift her husband/boyfriend bought her for Valentine’s Day.

If you have the budget, you can’t go wrong with this great Chloe wallet. If you order now, you can tease her for the next couple months with the constant mention of the great Valentine’s gift that you already have wrapped and sitting on the dresser.

Update: It appears that the Chloe brick red leather Paddington continental wallet is no longer available at Amazon. I’ve removed the link. Click this link to see everything that is available by Chloe at this time.

Update: If you are still interested in one of these wallets you should check on eBay to see if your Chloe leather wallet is for sale right now.

If you hurry and get the One-Day Shipping, you still have time to order something from Amazon and have it show up in time for Christmas. That leaves you with about 26 hours depending on your time zone. The cutoff is December 22nd at 2pm PT.

I did a quick search for Christmas Wallets on Amazon about about the only Christmasy thing to show up is a bunch of Nightmare Before Christmas wallets.

Not quite up my ally for everyday use, but I am a huge fan of the movie.

If you do happen to buy a last second item, make sure you head over to the Gold Box for their ever changing last second holiday specials.

I wish I would have known about that while we were doing our online Christmas shopping.

New Year’s Day is rapidly approaching. Most of us will recommit to trying to get in shape, stay more active, and lose a few of those holiday pounds.

My personal New Year’s Resolution of choice is to start running again; at the gym when the weather is too cold and outside when I get the lucky chance.  My biggest pet peeve in either case is what to do with my keys.  I don’t like leaving them laying around the gym and I hate having them bouncing around in my pockets.

Enter the handy, dandy shoe wallet.  It attaches right on to your shoe keeping your key safe and secure but also out of the way.  There is also room to put a few dollars to buy water or milkshakes along the route.

This particular shoe wallet comes in pink, midnight blue, jet black and camouflage.

I just found the perfect Christmas present for the person that has everything. I would be willing to bet that they do not have a bacon wallet.

Not only is it stylish, it is also delicious…wait, you probably are not supposed to actually eat it.

But it is pretty much guaranteed to attract attention whenever your loved one pulls it out to pay your restaurant bills.

Our Mazda MPV decided that it didn’t want to start any more the other day. With the car in the driveway, we considered our options.

1. Get the car towed and repaired.
2. Move, leave the car in the driveway, and buy a new car at the new house.

While deciding, one of the people in our neighborhood told us that her neighbor is a mechanic looking to make a few bucks on the side before they have a new baby next year.

We called him and he stopped by the next day to diagnose the problem. He said the air regulator thingy was stuck and the air wasn’t mixing with the gas properly. He used more professional sounding terms.

He checked with his shop and came back a couple days later with the part and swapped it out for his cost of the part (10% over what the shop pays) and $50 for labor. The entire thing cost $105 and the car was fixed in the driveway.

Super sweet.

During all of this, we found out that he is one of the mechanics at the shop that we probably would have taken the car to in the first place. I love when things bounce in our favor.

Here is a wallet right up my alley. Black, trifold, and slots big enough to hold everything.

The only thing missing is the photo sleeves but with the world being so digital, there are plenty of ways for me to get to see pictures of the kids during the day if I want.

It also has a spot for business cards. Currently, my business cards are still stored in the box because I don’t have a good place to put them.

I would add it to my Christmas list except I have used trifold wallets for years and am thinking about trying a bifold one next time. Maybe it will end up on the Christmas list in a year or two when I look for a replacement for the bifold that I’ll ask for this year.

Committing to paying a home mortgage for 30 years is a daunting task between the closing costs, the P&I insurance, and the basic up keep. And just wait until you need new siding or a new roof.

One couple in England avoid all that nonsense by living in a hotel. They’ve been living in a Travelodge for 22 years. Among the perks the mention are housekeeping, avoiding heating bills, and never cooking.

I lived in a hotel for 6 months during tech school in the Air Force. I could not imagine living in one for 22 years. Everything is so tight and cramped.

But if you could adjust to that, you might be able to afford it because you would have no utility bills and you would never have to buy furniture or pay for repairs. And if you ever want to move or go on vacation, you would have so few things it would probably only take a couple hours to pack.

On the other hand, if I ate out that much for 22 years, I would weigh 500 pounds. Maybe having a mortgage is a good way for me to make sure I can’t afford to eat out every meal.

Technorati Tags: odd news, personal finance, housing costs

We are playing a game of Can You Find the Leak at our house these last couple weeks. There is a leak in our back balcony sliding glass door. When it rains too hard, the track the door slides on fills up with water and over flows into the house. The water runs between the door and the floor, down the wall and into the computer room.

We tried replacing a couple of the weatherstrips but that did not fix the problem. Or maybe we fixed one of a couple problems.

Hopefully we will fix it with one of our next attempts which cost less than $10 each otherwise we are looking at replacing the door which will cost $500-$1000.

Tags: home repairs, frugal living, saving money

I just read Guy Kawasaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. Technically it is a pretty lousy read. It is amazing how many times he will say the same thing twice in a paragraph and then again a half page later. I got really sick of the names Rich Dad - Poor Dad. Couldn’t they just have been dad and some other guy? And some of the conversations from his childhood were painfully scripted and awkward.

Plus, the book really doesn’t give much technical advice on changing your money life.

Having said all of that, the book works well as a pep talk book and does a very good job of saying, “Hey, go read as much as possible about finance and investing so that you can know what you need to do.”

It worked so well that I rushed over to the library and checked out a few basic investing books and really want to take a few dollars and start putting it away.

My wife and I already have a few basic things in place. We make automatic deposits into an IRA, and a couple stock index mutual funds. I really want to take some of my own money and learn how to handle these transactions myself and learn how to do more than just keep adding money to the index funds.

For that, I say, “Thanks, Guy.”

I have done a few projects around the house recently that saved us quite a few dollars that it would have cost to hire somebody to do them.

Installed swing set - Amount saved $200

With our new fence already installed (and at least $1000 saved in labor by doing it myself with family help), we decided to put a swing set in the back yard. It is a simple kit from Wal-Mart that has two swings and a trapeze bar, monkey bars, a little platform where the slide attaches, and a ladder on one side and a “rock climbing wall” on the other to get to the platform. We bought the swing set for just under $300. Wal-Mart would have installed it for $200. I did it myself for free over two nights while watching the kids play in the back yard.

Fix bath tub cartridge - Amount saved $50

That price is probably a low estimate. It costs $50 to get a plumber to say “hi.” The cartridge is the device that controls how much water is flowing and what the temperature is. Ours had a little leak and needed replaced. I talked to the guys at Menards about what I needed and how to do it and swapped it out in about 15 minutes.

Installed ceiling fan - Amount saved $100

Again, this price is probably a low estimate. I have installed a handful of these over the years and we decided that our family room needed one because of how hot it got in the evening while the sun was setting. I installed the fan in one day in about 2 hours.

Just by getting my hands a little dirty I saved at least $350 in the last 1 1/2 weeks. I sure am glad I paid attention when my dad made me help with all the projects he did around the house when I was a kid.

In addition to saving money, the kids also watched me do all of the projects which will hopefully lead them to having the confidence and interest in being able to do similar projects when they are older.